


Catch the Fallen

by CassieWritesDestiel



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017)
Genre: Flashbacks, Gen, Panic Attacks, Peter Parker Needs a Hug, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Precious Peter Parker, Tony Stark Acting as Peter Parker's Parental Figure, Worried Tony Stark
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-14
Updated: 2019-04-14
Packaged: 2020-01-13 11:44:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,679
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18468274
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CassieWritesDestiel/pseuds/CassieWritesDestiel
Summary: It had just been a normal afternoon of patrolling for Peter as suddenly, he was ripped from reality to be trapped in his memories.Luckily, Tony is there to catch him.





	Catch the Fallen

Peter looked down, listening to the wind while watching the city down below. Everything seemed to be alright, as far as he could tell, nothing here to do for Spider-Man. “Anything nearby, Karen?” he asked his AI, hoping to get the itch to do something out of his fingers and toes.

“No, Peter, I can't detect anything in the radius of two miles. There's a robbery a few blocks down to your right though,” she answered, awaiting his further orders.

Peter smiled, breathed in the air of his city and stepped forward to the edge. “Alright, let's do this!”

He observed his route to the right, planning ahead where to hit with his webs with the help of Karen. Peter was about to jump as the welcoming daylight dimmed down to the brightly lit night of New York. The heat of flames mixed with the cold wind and his breathing hitched. “Nononono,” he mumbled, stumbling backwards as he tried to bring his mind under control. But closing his eyes only made it worse and suddenly he was back there, on the back of a plane about to crash onto the beach. The impact flung him through the air, and he landed between rubble and fires, his body rolling and flying over the sand out of his control until the energy he got passed on by the plane wore off. Simple physics, yet so hurtful. His ears stopped working for a moment, leaving him in pain and cut off from the world as his tears burned his eyes alongside the smoke around.

Falling, flying, his mind frantic with fear, and then, coming to a heavy halt on the ground. The air was gone, and suddenly, the orange turned to grey as flames transformed to stone and it was all wrong. It didn't make any sense. The weight crushed down on him as memories mixed in a swirl, and he couldn't breath even though he desperately tried to.

Suddenly, the ground underneath him dissolved and he plummeted down like a bird with no wings. Through tunnels, far away, he saw the skyscraper fly by but the colors were all wrong. He heard a female voice trying to reach out, distorted and distant, words falling apart to a mess he couldn't decipher. Then, another sound breaking through the dark, and he cried out for help he knew wouldn’t be coming. The noise in his ears cleared as the wind hitting against his body was disrupted by metal hands and the familiar sound turned out to be repulsors.

“Kid, kid, can you hear me? What's going on?” Tony's voice screamed into his ear, too loud and too close, leading on the crash of reality onto him. With reality returning came confusion.

“Mr Stark?” he asked, his own voice weak and not from his mouth. He shivered, everything was odd and why was he exhausted and cold and who was that Mr Stark was holding? Oh, that was him. His brain was slowly crawling out of the pit of memories, only partly realizing what was happening around yet.

“Welcome back, Peter,” Tony responded, his worried voice holding an edge of bitterness. “Mind telling me what that was?”

“What happened?” Peter asked, his mind still breaking through bandages to see.

“I was gonna ask you the same thing, kid,” Tony answered, his tone shifting from bitter to afraid, though trying to hide it.

The rest of the flight back to the tower happened in silence as Peter wouldn't respond to any questions. He was still too wrapped up in trying to figure out what happened.

~~

It was always the same, Peter finally realized. The flashback, curling up on him like a cat deciding to sleep on him, sucking him in like a black hole. Then, the confusion, the questions, and his mind like a room that looked like a storm just wandered through it. In some way, it was exactly what happened.

“So, mind telling me what just happened?” Tony asked again as Pepper handed Peter a cup of hot chocolate she was kind enough to make for the kid. Peter tried himself on an exhausted smile and a mumbled “thank you.” She just nodded and gave him a smile of encouragement in return before she left to give them some space. She was perfect, Tony thought as he followed her with his eyes, and there was no way he could ever deserve someone like her. Yet here he was, lucky enough to be calling her his fiancé.

“I'm not sure,” Peter finally answered after a long silence, crunching his eyebrows together in a frown. Tony mustered him closely, putting it all together like a puzzle but he had to be sure. It couldn't be, could it? Why hadn't he considered it, especially with his own past? He should've looked out more for the kid. “It's nothing,” he then added, breaking Tony's heart a little.

“Karen called me because you weren't responding to her and your heartbeat was crazy high. Not to mention you were hyperventilating all of the sudden. That's not nothing. What's wrong, Peter?”

“I don't know,” he breathed out, bringing his hands up to clutch his head, “I don't know, I don't know, it's just keeps happening.” His breathing hitched again as he tried swallowing the lump in his throat.

Tony reached out and took the kid’s hands in his own, bringing them down so he could look at him with what he hoped was a reassuring face. “It's okay,” he told him as Peter looked up with sad but hopeful eyes. “It's okay,” he repeated, slowly wrapping him up in a hug and Peter melted into it, taking in all the comfort his mentor had to offer him.

After some time just holding the kid and letting him calm down against his shoulder, Tony carefully asked: “What keeps happening?”

Peter tensed slightly in his arms and Tony was about to tell him that he didn't have to answer, they'd do it whenever he was ready, as the kid sat up to look up at him but quickly averted his gaze again. “I close my eyes and I'm back there and it doesn't make any sense and I can't breath,” Peter explained, talking way too fast to get it over with.

“Back where?” The evidence was all there, proving his theory, but still Tony wished it wasn't true.

“Back… On the plane, crashing down and falling or back underneath all that stone crushing me down,” he answered, his eyes suddenly distant and far away.

Tony frowned, trying to find out what the hell the kid was talking about in the second one. “Stone crushing you down? I'm hearing that the first time, what's that about, kid?”

Peter looked up and away again before he said in a quiet and guilty voice: “Before the whole thing with the plane, Toomes might have dropped a building on top of me.”

“He did what?” Tony exclaimed, anger bubbling up within him.

“He dropped a-,” Peter repeated, but was interrupted by the older man.

“Yeah, heard you the first time, Pete. That bastard.” Peter jerked together at his outburst but then chuckled slightly and Tony rethought his behavior, changing to a softer voice to not scare the Spiderling even more. “Why did you never tell me?”

“I…,” he started, but then fell quiet as he considered his answer. “I guess it just never came up,” he shrugged, “it didn't seem important.”

“Pete, if it's bothering you then it's important,” Tony clarified.

“Sorry,” Peter mumbled, and Tony sighed, recognizing this behavior all too well.

“It's alright.” Peter nodded and cuddled into Tony's side, still beat up from the panic attack and flashback earlier.

“Is that why you turned me down?” Tony asked, referring to the Iron-Spider-Suit and becoming an Avenger, “Because you were having these flashbacks?”

Peter blinked, processing the question. Was he right? Maybe. After all that happened, being an Avenger seemed too big, too overwhelming right now. Still, someone had to look out for May, for Ned, for everyone. Spider-Man was a comfort for him, even after everything that happened. He felt content in stopping the low class criminals roaming the streets of Queens and helping out wherever he could. It was small, but that was enough, and yes, perhaps he didn't feel in form to fight the big guys right now. But if he had to he'd do it anyway.

“Kid, you gotta tell me if something's wrong. Especially like that.”

“I had it under control, Mr Stark, please, believe me, everything's alright,” he sputtered, stumbling over the words in an attempt to convince his mentor. Then, in a mumble, he added: “Please don't take the suit again.”

Tony stared at him in shock for a moment. “Pete, this isn't about the suit, it's about you. You fell off the roof of a frickin’ skyscraper, you could've died! Hell, you almost did. If I didn't know better, I'd even say it was on purpose. Please don't tell me it was on purpose.”

Peter silently shook his head and Tony breathed out in relief. “I'm sorry,” he whispered, “It won't happen again, I promise.” 

“That's nothing you can promise, kid.” Tony rubbed his right hand over his face, holding the bridge of his nose for a moment while briefly closing his eyes and collecting himself again. He looked worried, tired and exhausted and Peter wondered if that was all because of him.

“I can try,” Peter said and Tony chuckled slightly.

“Sure you can, Pete,” he agreed and ruffled through the kid’s hair, “but that's nothing that just goes away overnight. That's something we gotta work on.” Peter nodded against his side, bringing his legs up to curl himself up. “How about you tell Karen when something's wrong, when it's happening again or you feel like it might be happening again,” Tony suggested, “Or you call me straight away?”

“But… what if it's happening and you're busy?”

“You're more important than whatever I might be doing. You're gonna call me whatever the time, promise?”

“Promise.”  



End file.
